MARGAO
It’s official. After having lost the ticket race for the 2019 South Goa Lok Sabha election, Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress chief Pratima Coutinho has finally set her eyes on the 2022 Assembly election.
A day after declining to contest the coming election for the Navelim Zilla Panchayat seat, Pratima on Saturday said she would either contest from her home constituency of Navelim in the event party leader Luizinho Faleiro calls it a day in politics or some other constituency in 2022.
“Since I am a resident of Navelim, I would love to contest from the constituency and to serve the people. But, since our senior leader Luizinho Faleiro is a sitting member, I will stake my claim for the ticket in Navelim only if the incumbent MLA decides not to contest elections. I would contest from Navelim with the guidance and support of Luizinho Faleiro if he decides to retire from politics,” she said.
Pratima, however, hastened to add that the Party leadership can accommodate her in other constituencies, where Congress MLAs have quit the party to embrace the BJP. “Since I have worked hard across the State, people know me for my honesty and sincerity. I and my dedicated mahilas had held protests across the State, be it with coconuts or onions to protest against the rising prices,” she said.
Pratima added: “I am confident that the Congress leadership will do justice to me and my hard work by nominating me either in Navelim if Faleiro does not intend to contest or some other constituency.”
The State Congress leadership was in favour of the State Mahila Congress chief to throw her hat in the election for the Navelim Zilla Panchayat which was countermanded following the death of the Congress candidate Santarita Coelho alias Babush.
The Goan understands that during her visits to the Navelim ZP constituency, consisting of the villages of Navelim, Telaulim, Dramapur-Sirlim and Sarzora, her well-wishers reportedly told Pratima to set her eyes on the Assembly election instead of throwing her hat in the ZP ring.
A former vice-chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council, Pratima had transferred her voting from the Margao Municipal area to Navelim village, with many saying she had shifted her voting to Navelim in order to contest the ZP polls.
Pratima was one of the Congress candidates who was in the race for the ticket for the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Parliamentary election, before the Party High Command settled in for former three-time MP, Francisco Sardinha, who helped the party to regain the seat with a comfortable margin.
